I received a letter from Optus yesterday with a competition. Whilst I’m not interested in entering, the Optus Movie Match competition was a bit of fun. The competition is a mural of movies. There are 26 movies in total to find hidden in the mural.
I was however disappointed to see the competition is really only open to Facebook users. I personally don’t think it is a good idea for businesses like Optus to push their customers towards companies like Facebook, as it has the potential for them send customers to other services.
For example at one stage I used to use the TV guide from Optus, but then if I recall correctly, the advertising on the page lead me to another TV guide and I’ve never returned. Facebook is largely an advertising company and if you’re sending your clients to Facebook to view your material, there’s a chance you may be sending them to your competitor without realising it. If possible try to run your competitions without putting yourself in the position where you may inadvertently use the services of an advertising service. The rule of thumb is if you’re not paying for the service, then they’re making money from your somehow, so you should be asking yourself, how do they make money and how that could affect you. Of course by using such a service there is the potential you could gain customers from the service, such as if people referred their friends to the competition, so you need to look at both potential gain and losses. In this case I’m already an Optus customer and if I wanted to play the competition, Facebook would gain another customer at Optus’ advertising expense.
Also what I found interesting was, when I searched for the Optus Movie Match competition using Google, I noticed the searches “Optus Movie Match answers”, Optus Movie Match competition answers”, Optus Movie Match competition” and checking the results provided a page with the 26 answers. The more astute of those entering competitions know the power of the internet. Not sure if I agree with the cloud representing the movie Australia, so make sure if you’re using crowd sourced answers you check them yourself.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/
I was however disappointed to see the competition is really only open to Facebook users. I personally don’t think it is a good idea for businesses like Optus to push their customers towards companies like Facebook, as it has the potential for them send customers to other services.
For example at one stage I used to use the TV guide from Optus, but then if I recall correctly, the advertising on the page lead me to another TV guide and I’ve never returned. Facebook is largely an advertising company and if you’re sending your clients to Facebook to view your material, there’s a chance you may be sending them to your competitor without realising it. If possible try to run your competitions without putting yourself in the position where you may inadvertently use the services of an advertising service. The rule of thumb is if you’re not paying for the service, then they’re making money from your somehow, so you should be asking yourself, how do they make money and how that could affect you. Of course by using such a service there is the potential you could gain customers from the service, such as if people referred their friends to the competition, so you need to look at both potential gain and losses. In this case I’m already an Optus customer and if I wanted to play the competition, Facebook would gain another customer at Optus’ advertising expense.
Also what I found interesting was, when I searched for the Optus Movie Match competition using Google, I noticed the searches “Optus Movie Match answers”, Optus Movie Match competition answers”, Optus Movie Match competition” and checking the results provided a page with the 26 answers. The more astute of those entering competitions know the power of the internet. Not sure if I agree with the cloud representing the movie Australia, so make sure if you’re using crowd sourced answers you check them yourself.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/
No comments:
Post a Comment